Hurricane Beryl is roaring through the Windward Islands as an extremely dangerous Category 4, delivering violent winds, intense rainfall and life-threatening storm surge after making landfall Monday.
It is the strongest known hurricane to pass through this region, according to data from NOAA that goes back to 1851.
Beryl made landfall shortly after 11:00 a.m. EDT on the Grenadines’ Carriacou Island in the Caribbean Sea with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph. The storm triggered power outages, flooded streets and ushered in storm surge flooding for parts of the Grenadines, Grenada, Barbados and Tobago Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Beryl’s arrival marks an exceptionally early start to the Atlantic hurricane season. On Sunday it became the earliest Category 4 on record in the Atlantic Ocean and the only Category 4 in the month of June. The bathtub-warm ocean waters that facilitated Beryl’s alarming strengthening are a clear indicator that this hurricane season will be far from normal in a world warming due to fossil fuel pollution.
Beryl is breaking records for June because the ocean is as warm now as it would normally be at the peak of hurricane season, said Jim Kossin, a hurricane expert and science advisor at nonprofit First Street Foundation.
“Hurricanes don’t know what month it is, they only know what their ambient environment is,” Kossin told CNN. “Beryl is breaking records for the month of June because Beryl thinks it’s September.”
